Short Summary

Doctors and nurses fought in vain at Nairobi Hospital yesterday (Saturday) to save the life of Mr.

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Doctors and nurses fought in vain at Nairobi Hospital yesterday (Saturday) to save the life of Mr. Tom Mboya, Kenya's Minister for Economic Planning and Development, who was shot three times by an unknown assassin in a downtown Nairobi street. Mr. Mboya, 39, was shot by an African gunman who drove past in a car as he left a pharmacy and, according to reports, died on the way to hospital.

People in the pharmacy said at the time that Mr. Mboya was caught by the gunman as he walked out the door. A large crowd soon gathered at the scene of the shooting and stood by as a police photographer worked. Mr. Mboya's car was parked nearby.

Among the first to arrive at Nairobi hospital was Mr. Mboya's younger brother who watched as doctors,among them a European, worked with respirators in an effort to revive the Minister. A crowd of weeping people soon converged upon the hospital casualty ward and police struggled to restrain them from entering. Scuffles between police and mourners broke out in a number of instances.

At one point, a small group of people managed to break through the police cordon and entered the hospital.

Among those who went to the hospital was Mr. Osoga, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Nairobi Hospital was formerly the city's European hospital.

Police late last night admitted that they had no idea of the identity of the gunman who fled in a car after shooting Mr. Mboya. They appealed over both the government-controlled Voice of Kenya and the Kenya News Agency for two men who had been seen talking to Mr. Mboya before he entered the pharmacy.

Mr. Mboya, who was generally considered the most likely successor to Kenya's President Jomo Kenyatta, was probably the best known of Kenya's politicians apart from the President.

Mr. Mboya made many trips overseas and played a prominent role in the founding of the East African Community--an economic linking of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. He also helped from Kenya's Central Organisation of Trade Unions.

At one time, following the Mau Mau emergency, Mr. Mboya was considered Kenya's best presidential material. But when President Kenyatta was released from detention, Mr. Mboya dissolved his own political party and backed the Kenya African National Union (KANU) which went ahead to win the 1963 elections.